Faster archiving with pbzip2

Most modern computers today are equipped with at least two CPU cores - for the user it means almost the same as two real CPUs doing your work. However, just having a multicore CPU doesn't mean your programs will run faster, it is important that the programs themselves have been designed to run faster on multicore processors.

Most of the compression commands that we saw up to now will use only one CPU and, hence, won't be very fast. pbzip2 can use multiple cores, hence decreasing overall time taken to compress your files.

Getting ready

pbzip2 usually doesn't come preinstalled with most distros, you will have to use your package manager to install it.

How to do it...

Let's see how to use pbzip2 to compress files and extract them:

1. Compress a single file like this:

   pbzip2 myfile.tar
   

   pbzip2 will automatically detect the number of cores on your system and compress myfile.tar, to myfile.tar.bz2

2. To compress and archive multiple files or directories, we use pbzip2 in combination...